Advice Column

The Power of Viral Marketing

Eight Strategies for Successful Viral Marketing - By Ivan Surjanovic

Undoubtedly, one of the newest and most powerful trends on Internet today is Viral Marketing. Some call it Word of Net, or Word of Mouse. In any case, viral marketing is actually digitally augmented word of mouth.

Thanks to Internet, it is now possible to spread the word about any new product, service or concept in a matter of days or even seconds. Companies such as Hotmail, ICQ, Priceline, Epinions, Napster, Mountain Blue, eBay, Amazon... actually did it.

Marketers around the world will rely more and more on Word of Net in the future. Viral marketing is an effective alternative to investing huge amounts of dollars in traditional advertising on TV, radio, or billboards.

Here are the eight strategies for successful viral marketing:

DELIGHT! Make sure that your product is really new and useful, enchanting, virus worthy.

Select your TARGET GROUP and expose your product or service to the most influential users first.

Remove all barriers to spread the word. Offer part of your service for FREE.

Design the system so that one needs OTHER PARTY to communicate with (e.g. ICQ)

Make it easy for consumer to SPREAD the virus, by providing tools such as Tell a Friend, etc.